Quotes about Yogananda

Build your inner environment. Practice Silence! I remember the
wonderful discipline of the Great Ones. When we used to talk and
chatter, they would say: "Go back into your inner castle." It was
very hard to comprehend then, but now I understand the way of peace

"Many teachers will tell you to believe; then they put out your eyes of
reason and instruct you to follow only their logic. But I want you
to keep your eyes of reason open; in addition, I will open in you
another eye, the eye of wisdom."
~Paramahansa Yogananda, `Man's Eternal Quest', quoting his guru's words to him

The Spirit of God, I realized, is exhaustless Bliss; His body is countless tissues of light.  — Autobiography of a Yogi Online: Chapter 14: An Experience in Cosmic Consciousness

Ever-new Joy is God. He is inexhaustible; as you continue your meditations during the years, He will beguile you with an infinite ingenuity. Devotees like yourself who have found the way to God never dream of exchanging Him for any other happiness; He is seductive beyond thought of competition. -- Sri Yukteswar, Paramahansa Yogananda's Guru, in Autobiography of a Yogi Online: Chapter 14: An Experience in Cosmic Consciousness

PRANAYAMA IS DERIVED fron two Sanskrit words - prana (life) and ayama (control). Pranayama is therefore life control and not  "breath control." The broadest meaning of the word prana is force of energy. In this sense, the universe is filled with prana; all creation is a manifestation of force, a play of force. Everything that was, is, or shall be, is nothing but the different modes of expression of the universal force. The universal prana is thus the Para-Prakiti (pure Nature), immanent energy or force which is derived from the infinite Spirit, and which permeates and sustains the universe.

When a man in the process of dreaming becomes conscious that he is dreaming, he is no longer identified with the phenomena; he is not affected exultantly or dolefully. God consciously dreams His cosmic play and is unaffected by it's dualities. A yogi who perceives his real self as separate from his active senses and their objects never becomes attached to anything. He is aware of the dream nature of the universe and watches it without being entangled in its complex but ephemeral nature.

The inactive man does not do his duty to his Creator or to the society that maintains him.  The recluse who devotes his entire life to sincere effort in meditation fulfills part of his duty by trying to find and love God, and thus,spiritualize his own life.  To improve oneself is to help society by the example of virtue and by making at least one of its members good!  

But the yogi (monastic or householder) who does his duty to God, and also to the world through some form of uplifting service, is the most highly evolved type of being.  He becomes a master (asiddha) when by such dutiful action he attains the supreme inactive state (nirvikalpa God-union), which is free from karmic effects of actions and is filled with the bliss of Spirit.